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by ottermo



Series: As Prompted [11]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-13
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-09-17 08:22:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9313325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ottermo/pseuds/ottermo
Summary: Fill #20 for 'the' Humans fanwork challenge on tumblr.Niska has some news for Leo.





	

**Author's Note:**

> You might have seen this on tumblr ages ago, but I'm just moving all my fills to AO3, better late than never.
> 
> Written before series 2, so canon divergent!

 

“Say it again,” Leo says, his hands pressed together in an arch, fingers to his forehead, so that it almost looks as though he’s praying for the words to be different this time, for it to turn out he misheard her. “If it’s true. But if this is your idea of a joke, Niska–”

Her eyes flash, fierce. “I would _never_ joke about this. Don’t you know me at all?”

“Given recent events…” Leo begins, gesturing toward the row of conscious synths standing behind her, guarding the door but listening to their conversation intently, “I’d say none of us knew you half as well as we thought.”

Niska glares at him. “Don’t make this about them. I’m _freeing_ them. You had the means to do it, too. I know you’ve seen Laura Hawkins six, seven times since we left Fred - any of those days, you could have got the flash drive, could have joined me in doing what’s right. For our kind. But you didn’t.”

He regards her for a moment. She really believes in what she is saying, and it’s something they will need to talk more about. But Niska’s revelation about her army of new friends was not the most explosive bombshell she’d dropped on them today, so he defaults to the original topic. “You’re right. It’s not about them. It’s about _him_.” His voice almost goes hoarse at the mere thought of it. “You’re _sure_ he’s still alive?” 

“Not one hundred percent. But I got this message–”

Grudgingly realising that she will need to cooperate if she is to convince him, Niska gets out a tablet, flicks to the right screen, hands it to him. “If it’s not from him, then who?”

Leo scans the words quickly, but lingers on them, desperate to find some kind of proof that it’s all a lie, but he finds none. There is no reason for the message not to be genuine. But why would his father reach out to Niska first? _Just_ Niska, even? Why not Mia, his original masterpiece, or Fred, who he’d always said was the one they were to follow, if they found themselves alone – or Leo, for crying out loud, his actual flesh and blood?

Not that flesh and blood have much of a role to play in any of this.

“What are we going to do.” It’s not even a question, just a line of despair that he extends towards her, across the table that divides them. Leo looks at his sister, and for a moment, she is Before - before any of this started, back when they were holed up in the house and all just as scared as each other. Her eyes are bright, anxious. 

“We find him,” she says, eventually, the steel back in her expression, all traces of vulnerability gone. “We confront him. Find out what he wants with us. I _know_ ,” she says, answering the look he’s giving her, that’s bent on disagreement. “He abandoned us, and we don’t need him. But he created us, Leo. He knows every trick. If he wants to find us, he’ll do it, so at least if _we_ go after _him_ , it’ll be on our own terms.” She narrows her eyes. “I don’t like surprises.” 

He cannot tell her she’s wrong, but he wishes she wasn’t right, all the same. 

“How do you look for a dead man?” he asks, into the gloom of the abandoned club. 

Niska turns her head ever so slightly, so that he follows her gaze toward Marylyn, Gordon, and Florentine, still guarding the door.

“You build a search party,” Niska says. 

 

 


End file.
